week 1

Question 1

What can a class in business ethics do?

Answer 1

1. You can clarify the right and wrong in context of business
2. Common moral language
3. Show that wrong actions are often done by people with no intention of doing so
4. Help us think about the place of business in our world and the goods it can promote

Question 2

Are we built for ethics

Answer 2

We as humans are built for ethics. Morality is what makes us human, even though we are all far from perfect.

Question 3

Why aren’t we all angels?

Answer 3

• Part of the problem is that although we’re built to be moral, we’re not built to be perfectly moral.
• If you’re surrounded by people who care about morality, it’s to your evolutionary advantage to seem more moral than you really are but to bend and break the rules a bit here and there. But we are all also selfish.

Question 4

what are the 3 stumbling blocks of human nature that prevent us from doing the rigjt thing (why aren’t we morally perfect)?

Answer 4

There are 3 stumbling blocks of human nature that can prevent us from doing the right thing
1. Moral confusion
2. Incentives
3. Psychological factors

Question 5

Explain moral confusion

Answer 5

Moral confusion is the state of uncertainty about what is right or wrong (ethical or unethical)
- Limitations in knowledge causes moral confusion
- Example of moral confusion: The trolley problem

Question 6

what are the limits of moral confusion

Answer 6

Only some of our bad behavior is examples by moral confusions

The reasons for skepticism:
- Moral philosophers don’t behavior better than their peers
(Moral confusion can’t explain all bad behavior because even moral philosophers don’t behavior better)
- More mundane factors appear to be more common

Question 7

explain the effects of incentives

Answer 7

Incentives matter because businesses motivate their employees through them BUT problems arise when the interests of the individuals and companies are misaligned

Internal incentives
“Hoping for A while paying for B” refers to when a company expresses a desire for a certain outcome/behavior (A) but incentives a different, often contradictory outcome/behavior (B)
–> example: A company may claim to prioritize quality customer service (A), but if it primarily rewards employees based on the number of sales they make

Bad external incentives
Bad external incentives are rewards or motivations that encourage behaviors which are counterproductive, unethical, or misaligned with the desired outcomes of an organization.

Diffusion of Responsibility
Sometimes the problem isn’t that a business’s incentives are bad but they might be unclear
“when everyone is responsible, no one is responsible”

Question 8

explain psychological factors

Answer 8

Sometimes we act badly not because we are confused about what the right thing to do is but instead because :

• We are influenced by those around us
• We feel reluctant to do something
• We don’t notice out action matters ethically

Question 9

explain weakness of will, tendency to conformity, and obedience to authority (psychological factors)

Answer 9

Weakness of will
- When we know the right thing to do but don’t have the willpower to avoid temptation
- To overcome temptation it requires willpower but often if you’re already in the situation, then it’s too late
Ex: getting in the car with someone else

Tendency to Conformity
- Most of us tend to conform our behavior to what authorities or our peers expect of us.
-For instance, there’s good evidence that people conform their political beliefs to whatever their group thinks rather than what they have evidence for

Obedience to authority
- tendency of individuals to comply with orders or directives from someone in a position of power or authority, even if these orders go against their personal beliefs or moral values.

Question 10

what are moral blind spots

Answer 10

Most of the time we operation on auto-polite and don’t pay attention to everything around is
Example of moral blind spots : Princeton Theological Seminary Experiment

Question 11

explain the Princeton Theological Seminary Experiment

Answer 11

The Princeton Theological Seminary Experiment, conducted by John Darley and Daniel Batson in 1973, explored the influence of situational factors on altruistic behavior. The experiment revealed that the likelihood of helping the distressed person was significantly influenced by how rushed the participants felt, demonstrating that situational context, rather than personal disposition or religious commitment, strongly affects prosocial behavior.

Question 12

what is ethics

Answer 12

Ethics concerns how we ought to live and how we should treat others

Question 13

what is a normative claim

Answer 13

claims about how the world ought or should be (claims about its value)

Ex: business shouldn’t deceive their customers about their product
Ex: hitler was evil

Question 14

what is a descriptive claim

Answer 14

claims about how the world is
Ex: vancouver is in british columbia

Question 15

explain normative vs. descriptive claims

Answer 15

Normative and descriptive is not a distinction between fact and opinion but there is a relationship between them
whether a claim is normative or descriptive doesn’t automatically categorize it as a fact or an opinion, because these categorizations depend on additional context and interpretation.

Ethics/Morality is normative because it concerns what we ought to do, what we should do.

Question 16

if morality is normative. what are 2 ways we talk about morality

Answer 16

Conventional morality: Describing a society or cultures moral beliefs / set of norms that are accepted

Critical morality: trying to figure out what we should do

Question 17

what is critical morality

Answer 17

Critical morality: evaluating and questioning moral norms, principles, and practices based on reason, evidence, and ethical theories.

Question 18

why is Morality not the same as common normas like customs, etiquette, and law

Answer 18

Moral obligations have a different kind of authority

• It is intrinsic authority : The moral obligation not to harm others is rooted in the intrinsic value of human well-being and respect for others’ rights. They are binded due to their ethical importance.
• Not complying with social customs doesn’t always mean we failed morally and should be blamed.

Ex: if I eat without spoons then i dont get punished for not following that norm but if i kill someone I will

Question 19

what is cultural relativism

Answer 19

Cultural relativism : right and wrong is determined by the consensus of a culture
Ex: MLK says racism is wrong but people say it isn’t.

Question 20

what is ethical subjectivism

Answer 20

Ethical subjectivism : right and wrong is determined by each individual
Ex: Hitler says racism is okay to him, so he doesn’t care.

Question 21

what is ethical relativism

Answer 21

Ethical relativism is the view that moral truths or values are not universal but are instead relative to the cultural, social, or individual preferences. what is considered morally right or wrong can vary from one society or individual to another, and there are no objective moral standards that apply universally.

Question 22

why aren’t most of us ethical relativists

Answer 22

1. We think there are answers to moral questions that we can discover which is why we debate them. (meaning we do think there must be some real facts about morality)
2. We also think every person has a reason to be respectful toward different cultures and beliefs (if we think that everyone should be respectful towards others, it suggests there are some moral truths that apply to everyone)